Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2282: Chapter 2283: The Calamity of Thought

What was described as ’galloping’ differed significantly from galloping in the true world.

Rather than galloping, it was more akin to a special movement technique. Under this technique, Angel stayed inside Wang Wang’s belly without even feeling the liquid within Wang Wang’s body moving.

The feeling of ’galloping’ arose because the surrounding strange space began to madly recede.

Although Angel was inside Wang Wang’s belly, it didn’t prevent him from seeing the external scenery.

Everywhere was filled with strange and fanciful sights, like auroras flying across, like layers of clarity and turbidity, along with black and white fragmented butterflies merging into swarms. And all these scenes, because of Wang Wang’s rapid movement, receded and became fleeting shadows, with the surrounding scenery transforming into a kind of blurred, multicolored view.

Almost nothing was clear, only seeing the dazzling colorful mist, the contradiction and monstrosity between vividness and solemnity.

Wang Wang’s speed continued to increase. It seemed very wary of the surrounding colorful scenery, moving forward towards a certain target without a sound.

Meanwhile, Angel fell into introspection.

From the current situation, Wang Wang should have begun to ’shift’ towards the Treasureland.

According to Wang Wang’s previous statement, Angel should now be unable to think and have lost all sensory capabilities. But that was not the case; apart from his emotional module being slightly suppressed, Angel was almost unaffected.

Wang Wang’s knowledge of this place obviously far exceeded Angel’s; it should not be shooting in the dark. Normally, Angel might indeed follow Wang Wang’s script.

But the situation now is evidently abnormal. How did this abnormality arise?

Angel’s intuition, and it’s the only conclusion he could think of at the moment, likely related to the matter with the Eye of the Sky.

Perhaps because he was taken by the Eye of the Sky to a Strange World, and stayed there for a very long time, thus developing a certain immunity to the current situation. This was why the situation Wang Wang described did not occur.

But is this really the Strange World where the Eye of the Sky once took Angel?

It’s somewhat similar, yet not entirely.

What makes it similar is that Angel was also ’rising’ at that time, and during the rising process, his emotional module experienced problems. However, unlike then, when his emotional module was ultimately completely stripped away, this time his emotional module was suppressed but not lost.

Nevertheless, Angel does not believe that the Strange World he was taken to by the Eye of the Sky is different from the Strange World now.

He is more inclined to think it is indeed the same Strange World, except that the place Angel went to last time was deeper, or perhaps the place he went to last time was the complete version of the High Dimensional Space; while the space where Wang Wang is currently taking him is situated in the interstice between the real world and the high-dimensional space.

Only in this situation can explain why his emotional module was merely suppressed, rather than stripped.

——Because it wasn’t deep enough.

On the other side, Wang Wang had no idea that Angel was contemplating the truth of this space; it continued to ’gallop’ with focus.

Its trajectory avoided the surrounding anomalies, including the strange sights and the colorful mist around it. Because it knows how terrifying the seemingly harmless anomalies are inside.

When it first entered this Strange World, an inherent inspiration told it never to touch these anomalies.

In its youthful ignorance, Wang Wang initially followed its instinctive premonitions but later, being too curious, it touched a white butterfly that didn’t seem to pose much threat.

The result... that white butterfly entered Wang Wang’s body and quickly flapped its wings, destroying everything inside Wang Wang.

Like a terrifying destructive virus, touching it meant certain death.

Fortunately, upon realizing the white butterfly had entered its body, Wang Wang immediately severed half of its body. The half containing the white butterfly quickly decayed and perished, while the other half barely survived.

And this was just the weakest anomaly Wang Wang sensed as a threat.

If a white butterfly could cause such horrifying destruction, what about the other anomalies? Wang Wang dared not imagine and wouldn’t attempt again.

Fortunately, when navigating this Strange World, as long as there was a predetermined direction or a set coordinate, a path would naturally diverge for it to traverse. And on this path, anomalies seldom appear.

It is for this reason that Wang Wang could traverse here unimpeded.

Of course, this path isn’t truly safe. Occasionally, small issues would arise, but that’s the consequence of not following the rules. As long as the rules here are followed, there shouldn’t be any problems.

And Wang Wang naturally follows the rules very carefully. However, what it didn’t expect was that even though it was adhering to the rules this time, an accident still occurred—

Just as Wang Wang was ’galloping’ with a clear mind, a small patch of red mist suddenly appeared in the previously empty passage ahead.

Wang Wang was startled by the red mist. Fortunately, having learned from its losses, it was very cautious in this Strange World and responded quickly, swiftly ascending, traversing, and descending, narrowly avoiding the patch of red mist.

Back on track, before Wang Wang could feel frightened or relieved, a new situation emerged.

Spike-shaped thorns jabbed in from both sides of the passage, forming a transverse Thorn Forest.

These spikes exuded a terrifying aura. Wang Wang knew that if it touched these spikes, the result would be undoubtedly more terrifying than when it touched the white butterfly.

And now, retreating was not an option, as the path back had already been sealed by anomalies. They couldn’t return to the outside either, as estimating the distance, the outside was still within the Spatial Tempest, and stepping outside would see both it and Angel shattered into dust by the Spatial Tempest.

Currently, the only way out was to rely on its movement technique and positioning to dodge through the Thorn Forest.

The road behind had already started to collapse; Wang Wang did not dare to hesitate and rushed into the transverse Thorn Forest. Its movement technique was very agile, barely finding a path through the various thorns to accommodate its body.

In Angel’s perspective, Wang Wang at this moment was like a thief attempting to steal the Secret Treasure from a museum, dodging an endless array of red ropes with bells in front of the treasure.

Wang Wang performed excellently without touching any ’red rope’ and certainly did not awaken any bells.

But as per the trope in storybooks where drama must unfold, even if the thief dodges the red rope array to reach the Secret Treasure, it’s very likely to trigger some mechanism, and these mechanisms are often deadly. Even if no mechanism exists, something might descend from the heavens, encountering other gatekeepers.

While Angel was contemplating this, Wang Wang had already passed through the Thorn Forest. As Wang Wang let out a long breath of relief, it suddenly noticed strange occurrences up ahead, even more terrifying this time.

A shadow stretched across the sky above the road, extending an unknown length, and this shadow was slowly descending.

No calculations were needed to ascertain the speed of the shadow’s descent; Wang Wang knew that even at full throttle, it would be near impossible to pass through the passage before the shadow landed.

Additionally, who knew how long the shadow extended, potentially covering the entire passage behind?

Shadow ahead, road collapse behind.

Wang Wang was momentarily trapped in the center of the road.

It hadn’t anticipated that this journey through time and space would be so fraught with peril, and judging by the current circumstances, it seemed to have no escape.

Unable to flee, unable to retreat... even more unable to advance.

What in the world is happening? For the first time, Wang Wang felt a wave of despair.

Perhaps due to the emotional suppression of this Strange World, the despair did not last long, and Wang Wang returned to rationality. As it thought rationally, Wang Wang suddenly remembered something.

It abruptly twisted its soft body, pulling its eyes directly to its belly in a ”twisting” pose.

This way, Wang Wang could see the person inside its belly.

And the person inside its belly was blinking while making eye contact with it.

Blinking?! Wang Wang snapped back to awareness, immediately sending a wave of information to Angel. — Thankfully, Angel was inside its body, and its body fluid could serve as a transmission medium to convey the message to Angel.

”Why are you awake?”

Before Angel could answer, Wang Wang sent a second wave of information, its urgent tone resonating in Angel’s mind: ”Put everything else aside; are you thinking nonsense in your mind? If so, stop it immediately, don’t think of anything at all. Otherwise, we’ll both die!”

After Wang Wang said this, it darted towards the shadow-covered passageway in the distance. If it didn’t run now, the anomalies behind would catch up.

As soon as it entered the area covered by the shadow, Wang Wang felt unprecedented pressure.

Even though the shadow hadn’t fully descended, the death threat of a sword hanging over its head had already taken root in its consciousness.

Wang Wang didn’t know if the shadow’s appearance was related to Angel, but it could only hope for Angel, clearing its thoughts while messaging Angel: ”Think of nothing, think of nothing.”

What Wang Wang didn’t know was that its magical obsessive chant could sometimes serve as an anchor for starting ”new thoughts.”

Of course, this was for ordinary people.

For a Wizard like Angel, who could dismiss external distractions and enter meditation anytime, Wang Wang’s insane chant naturally held no sway.

Although Angel was unclear why Wang Wang suddenly told him not to think about anything, given Wang Wang’s urgency and explicit mention of ”potential death,” Angel naturally didn’t dare to think recklessly anymore.

He quickly reined in his mind, dismissing all thoughts about ”museum thieves,” his mind turning into a void.

At this moment, the shadow outside had descended more than halfway; the passageway was currently only a third of its original height.

Wang Wang was already running close to another type of anomaly below, yet even so, it saw no end to the shadow ahead.

Perhaps the shadow truly covered the entire path ahead.

Just when Wang Wang believed it might end today, the shadow suddenly stopped descending.

Through a special perspective, Wang Wang saw Angel with eyes closed in contemplation and understood instantly that Angel had managed to halt his thoughts.

Wang Wang dared not be distracted, nor to disturb Angel. All it could do now was sprint swiftly away from the shadow, striving to reach the end of the passage as soon as possible.

Wang Wang ran for a long time, feeling as though the length of this passage had expanded countless miles.

Finally, Wang Wang arrived at familiar coordinates.

The external location it corresponded to was no longer a spatial tempest, but the inner empty space of a Void Storm. And this was where Angel needed to go.

Without hesitation, Wang Wang left this Strange World.

Upon leaving, Wang Wang glanced upwards; the shadow still existed, stretching endlessly.

This meant that its previous deduction was correct: the shadow spanned the entire passage, and luckily it had stopped Angel’s errant thinking in time, or else there would have been major issues.

Sinking... sinking...

This ”sinking” corresponded to the initial ”rising,” where rising was a special sublimation, and sinking was more like a divine descent.

The suppressed emotional modules began to rapidly restore, returning to full normalcy.

Simultaneously, Angel felt the liquid enveloping him begin to slowly recede until he could once again perceive the Void.

Angel opened his eyes, immediately sensing an oppressive force coming from afar.

Though the oppressive feeling wasn’t intense yet, the feeling of being watched by Wang Wang’s unwavering gaze was even stronger.

”Did we arrive?” Angel hesitated and asked.

Wang Wang still stared at Angel, not replying. But Angel could ascertain from his surroundings and the nearby Void Storm that they had left the Strange World and returned to the Void.

”What just happened...?” Angel paused: ”Thinking, does it really lead to severe consequences?”

Wang Wang, who had remained silent, finally spoke: ”Before traversing the Void, I warned against thinking. Because there, merely thinking would stir the surrounding anomalies. And just encountering an anomaly, even the one that feels least threatening to me, would suffice to obliterate us entirely.”

”That shadow was an anomaly?”

”Not just the shadow, the red mist encountered earlier, along with numerous stabbing spurs, were anomalies.” As he said this, Wang Wang added, ”Previously, they weren’t present.”

This meant that all these anomalies were the result of Angel’s thoughts.

Angel now understood why Wang Wang was so urgent in telling him to cease his thoughts, as it truly could provoke terrifying consequences.

Thinking of the seemingly endless shadow, Angel couldn’t help but display a post-tragedy relief.

Exhaling slowly, Angel expressed his apology to Wang Wang sincerely.

Wang Wang, however, bore no intention to blame Angel because it also understood that initially it was Wang Wang’s oversight in not clarifying the consequences, so it too held responsibility; besides, the result was satisfactory, so Wang Wang let it go.

Rather than blame, it was more curious—

”How come you weren’t affected?”